Chapter 5

Lucy POV

“Your son?” He questioned, trying to digest the words, his eyes going detached.

“You now have a son? This is the only product you achieved doing this job?” Adrian says, his voice completely irritated and emotionless. He stands over me, those cold amber eyes showing nothing as they stare down at my trembling body.

My heart stutters in my chest as I remain on my knees, still tasting the salt and shame from the blow job I just did for him, my wolf howling inside me with emotional pain.

“An evidence of your whoring attitude.” He adds cruelly.

His cruel words hurt my wolf and I so bad. Despite my wolf being suppressed, the mate bond pulls tight, sending unwanted heat through my veins even now, but terror overrides everything. “Adrian… Please listen. I’ve only ever laid with one man, you for 5 years.”

If anything, my words made him more angry.

The tension in the room thickens, his alpha scent appears dark now, wrapping around me, making my suppressed wolf stir restlessly.

“You have the guts to lie to my face,” he says with bloodshot eyes and before I can get another word out, his hand swings fast and hard across my cheek.

“How dare you!?” He snaps.

The slap explodes pain across my face, the force sending me falling sideways onto the ground.

My lip splits open, blood starts spilling. I gasp, pressing a shaky hand to my stinging cheek, tears blurring my vision.

My whole body shakes. This isn’t him. The Adrian I knew from five years ago would never lay a hand on me like his father used to. He always protected me, pulling me behind him during fights, holding me close when nightmares came. He promised I was safe with him. Now he is the monster, standing there emotionless while I bleed at his feet.

My wolf whimpers low in my chest, curling tight as the mate bond aches like a bruise. I don’t recognize this version of him.

His jaw is colder now, replaced by nothing but cold dominance.

“Please,” I beg, my voice breaking into sobs as I look up at him from the floor. Blood trickles out my mouth. “I’m telling the truth. Let me answer the phone. It’s the hospital calling about my son Eric. My son needs surgery. He might not make it if I don’t get there soon.”

The phone keeps ringing on the floor a few feet away, each vibration like a punch to my gut.

I crawl toward him slowly, my knees burning against the floor, but Adrian’s boot comes down on my wrist, pinning me hard enough to make me wince.

He just holds me there with that blank stare, his face showing zero feeling. The pain is getting more intense.

“Adrian… please. I’m begging you. Don’t let him die because of this.”

After long, suffocating seconds, he finally lifts his boot. Without a word, he picks the call and put it on loud speaker

The doctor’s voice came blunt.

“Ms. Lucy, your son’s life is in your hands right now. We’ve stabilized him as much as possible, but since you can’t pay the bills, you should come carry him. You already have outstanding bills piling up. This isn’t a charity home.”

I feel shiver running down my spine as I try to find my words. “Please … I’ll get the money. Just don’t send him home yet, please I…”

The line goes off. The doctor hung up before I could finish.

I turn back to Adrian, tears streaming down my face in desperation.

My body hurts everywhere, but the fear for my little boy is worse. “Adrian, please let me go to the hospital. I can’t go with you right now. My son needs me. He’s only four and he’s so scared in that bed. You said if I satisfied you, you’d let me leave with the money. I did it. I did everything you asked. Alphas don’t break their words...”

His cold eyes narrow just a fraction the moment the last statement leaves my mouth, the only tiny change in his emotionless look. For a heartbeat I think maybe he’s rethinking it. Then his voice comes out flat again.

“Emotional blackmail?” he says. His hand swings again without warning as the second slap sends me crashing to the floor harder this time.

Pain bursts through my jaw as I spit blood onto the carpet, coughing as stars dance in my vision. My cheek throbs, already swelling.

I curl up, sobbing. Every part of me is shaking. This monster isn’t my stepbrother anymore. He is something darker, a cold alpha who rules without mercy.

“Please, Adrian,” I beg from the floor, my voice hoarse and desperate. “I don’t want my son to die. Let me save him. I’ll come back. I swear on the moon goddess and everything. Just don’t let him die because of me.”

I stay there, pleading over and over, my wolf pressing against my skin as if trying to reach out to its mate. The bond hurts, pulling me toward him even as my body screams to run. After what feels like forever, Adrian finally speaks.

“On one condition,” he says coldly. “I will let you go, but you need to show up tomorrow . No running. You come back to the pack... To me.”

Relief washes over me so strongly that fresh tears fall. “Yes. I promise. I’ll come. I’ll go with you. Just let me get to Eric first. Please. I don’t want my son to die.”

He watches me for another long, tense moment, his powerful body completely still.

Then he reaches for the money and throws the thick stack of cash down at me. The cash scattered across my body and the floor. “Go. But if you break your word, you won’t like what happens next.”

I don’t wait. I grab every dollar with bloody hands, pull my ruined outfit around me as best I can, and run out of the VIP room.

My heels click unevenly down the hallway. I change into spare clothes with shaking fingers, wipe the blood from my face, and speed to the hospital.

Reaching the hospital. I pay every outstanding bill and the full cost of the emergency surgery right at the desk, my hands still trembling as I count out the cash.

The nurses give me strange looks because of my bruised face, but they take the money anyway.

They wheel Eric into surgery fast as I sit there for hours, my knees growing weak, whispering prayers to the moon goddess. “Please save my son.”

When the doctor finally comes out, he says the surgery went as well as expected. Eric should start recovering. He’ll need monitoring.

My little boy is going to be okay. But fear creeps back in right away.

Adrian expects me to be back tomorrow …

He is a beast now, cold and dangerous, nothing like the protective boy from five years ago. Going back to him would open every old wound. The mate bond still burns inside me, my wolf yearning for him, but my heart knows better.

He hits me now. Twice without feeling remorse. I can’t stay here and wait for him to drag me back. I have to run. For Eric’s sake. For my own.

I stay with Eric until he wakes up groggy from the anesthesia.

Later that night, when the hospital quiets and the night shift nurses are busy, I wrap him carefully in blankets and carry him against my chest.

He’s still sleepy. My heart races as I sneak through the back hallways, avoiding cameras and staff. Every coming human shadow makes me even more scared.

The lonely back gate appears ahead. Just a few more steps and we can disappear from here.

Soon, we reached home as I began packing. Just as I put the last piece of clothing into the box, Eric’s voice snapped me from my haze of worries and thoughts.

“Mom, why are we moving?”